Title: 🧐3.4. The Continuum of Gender-Based Violence
Course: "Our networks, our security" Digital Security with a Gender Perspective > Section: Module 3. Identifying Common Threats: Online Gender-Based Violence against Women and Girls

As we mentioned earlier, cyber violence against women and girls is not something new. This violence falls within the context of the discrimination that affects women in all areas of our social life and in all countries around the world.

Just as it happens offline, in cyberspace women also face forms of coercion, abuse, and aggression that are part of a widespread pattern of gender-based violence (a continuum of violence) aimed at controlling or limiting our lives and opportunities.

This pattern of violence is based on stereotypes and prejudices that place women in an inferior or subordinate position compared to men, and that seek to maintain gender inequality. It is important to note that this continuum of gender-based violence now flows between online and offline spaces due to the close integration that technology has achieved in our lives.

Thus, violence can start as acts of sexual harassment in public spaces or as bullying within a school and then transform through technology into forms of online violence, such as the non-consensual distribution of intimate images via WhatsApp, cyberbullying on TikTok, sexist hate speech on Twitter, or cyber-monitoring through cell phones.

As we will see next, another clear example of this continuum of violence is the online aggression committed against women by their intimate partners, who are now using technology to extend abusive and possessive behaviors.

I’m sharing some additional resources that helped me better understand what gender-based violence against women is:
- Informational brochure on the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women (PDF)
- Fact sheet "Understanding and Addressing Violence Against Women" from the World Health Organization (PDF)
- Fact sheet "Breaking the Continuum of Violence Against Women and Girls" from the European Women's Lobby (PDF, in English